Always Faithful
by Delta Treeflyer
Summary: Takeru Stormston is a ferret assassin, formerly of Redwall; Vulpuz Zuli is a wolf mercenary from the Northlands, fighting with the fact that he embodies Vulpuz' spirit. But both have the same destiny-to stop a new force from taking over Mossflower.
1. The Assassin

Winter.

This was the most hated of all seasons in the land of Mossflower, the time where food became scarce and the foliage was replaced by bare, dark gray branches. The least colorful of all seasons, swamped in snow and colored white and gray; that was winter's title. Truly, it was the king of all the seasons, while summer was the queen.

Takeru Stormston was a ferret, and despite what her name may or may not have suggested, she was female; a thin ferret with a coat of pale gray, ice-cold eyes that were surrounded by silvery circles. And she wasn't your average ferret; she was a mercenary and assassin. It didn't matter to her what a beast wanted her to do. If she was paid well, she would do it, even if it involved assassinating her own little 'gang' of vermin, who were, after all, completely worthless.

Right now, the gray ferret was sitting on a log, waiting for her next employer. It had become routine; she had the worthless vermin who followed her lined up in the trees, and if the visitor presented a threat, he or she would be dead before they knew it. Her tail swished once as she lay back onto the trunk of a tree that was handily growing behind her. She pricked her ears and listened; from in front of her came the crackle of twigs. Her gang was lined up behind her-they couldn't have made that noise-so she knew her 'employer' would be coming out of the trees before long with a remark to speed them on their way.

"I can hear you," she called lazily, examining a claw on one of her paws. "Stop wasting my time and get on with it."

The bushes rustled and a stoat slunk out of them. She smirked-this was usually the kind of lower class life form that came to her for help-and stared the beast in the eyes. "Well? What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to kill Arawolf Rainclaw for me." The stoat stuttered in reply.

The lean gray ferret smirked. "Where have I heard that name before…ah, yes, that troublesome river otter." She grinned wolfishly. "Her occupation is vermin slayer, if I'm correct."

The stoat nodded quickly. "Aye. She's been troubling me and my horde for a while and I need you to get rid of her-"

He was cut off in mid-sentence, for the ferret had leapt up. "Hah! You, lead an army? Don't make me laugh, stoat."

The stoat jumped slightly. "N…no…I was the one sent here to hire you…"

Takeru frowned slightly and slowly sat back down, slouching against the tree trunk again. "All right then. I need to kill this Arawolf Rainclaw character." She smirked again. "And in exchange?" she asked sharply. She was pretty sure the stoat hadn't come without payment…that was, if he wanted to keep living.

"Yes!" the stoat replied quickly, fumbling in a small pouch before pulling out a beautiful, multi-faceted emerald that glittered softly in the sunlight. Tak examined it from a distance.

"That should do nicely," she said, her voice approving. She stood, and the stoat held the crystal out to her, but she didn't take it.

"I take my payment after the otter is dead. You will give it to me then. And if you don't…well, let's just say…I'll have a lot of cold blood on my paws. Some of which will be yours." Tak finished.

The stoat nodded slightly.

"Get going. I'll tell you when the otter's dead." The gray ferret snapped, and the stoat scampered away back into the woods. Tak's eyes watched every step of the vermin's flight.

She would not need help from her gang-she was taking the otter down by herself. She hated vermin slayers, who went around acting all righteous and the like, thinking they were protecting the world from danger.

A sudden, vicious smile crossed her face, and she turned to the trees behind her.

"You will all stay here. The otter…I'm killing her by myself."

She stood up, drew her scimitar, which was an iron blade run through with streaks of gold, and marched off, melding into the green leaves of the forest like firesmoke.

* * *

A.N. Prologues are short. What can I say? This is the first time my Redwall alter ego, Takeru Stormston, is in a story I've written. So yes…please R&R so I write more. =D


	2. Vulpuz

If anything, it was colder in the Northlands.

Not a ray of sun could pierce the heavy fog and gray clouds of the new morning. Not even the fires set in the valley made a speck of light in the whole picture of the forbidding place; the only thing that was prominent among the gray were the endless mountains that rose up like demonic teeth to bite the rainy darkness of the clouds.

In other words-the day was perfect for the Night Hawk army to do some fighting practice.

This was an army wide event, obviously. Large circles of dirt were surrounded by eager spectators, most of which were ferrets, stoats, weasels, and rats, with a slight scattering of foxes. The fights were only for fun, but that was no guarantee that they wouldn't end up fatal, because that was usually what happened.

Now most of the army's might was pressed in one such circle-almost two thousand individual vermin packed in a mass, straining to get a glimpse of the dirt circle in the middle, in which two beasts stood, facing each other; a scrawny fox and a larger wolf.

A stoat sauntered in and sat down close to the edge of the dirt ring, ready to slip away if a blade struck at him, and spoke. "Yew all knows da rules. First 'un down or dead loses an' da loser's subject ta death an' all weapons are allowed. Taday, da fighters are Mangefur da fox an' Vulpuz Zuli da wolf." The stoat nodded after he'd finished speaking, and leaned back against a wooden pole that had been planted in the dirt. "All right den, start."

The fox fumbled in his belt before pulling out something that looked like a rusty knife. Vulpuz' paw easily shot down to the handle of a strange looking blade-a kilij-before pulling it out, the tip dully gleaming from the polishing it had received earlier that day. Without any further notice, the wolf launched himself at the fox.

Mangefur yelped and dove out of the way; as a result, Vulpuz ended up with his blade stuck in the dirt. He pulled it out irritably and whirled around to face Mangefur, who had been charging at his back with the rusted knife. Acting swiftly, the wolf ducked and the fox tripped over him. Mangefur skidded about three feet with his face in the ground before he got back up, missing several teeth. He grinned crookedly at Vulpuz and, waving the rusty knife around, charged at the wolf.

Vulpuz looked at him and, at the last second, held out his kilij. The fox ran straight into the blade, coughed, and fell backward. The wolf let go of his blade and let it drop with the fox. The Night Hawk army went silent for a few seconds before they began to explode into cheering-

And then the wolf doubled over, but snapped up almost just as quickly, his eyes beginning to glow a fierce bloody red. The 'referee' stoat looked at Vulpuz, startled, as the wolf began to speak in a strange, booming voice that carried none of his usual accent.

"I am Vulpuz…the purger of weakness…the Great Destroyer. Those who bow before me in fear shall die…those who bow to me shall burn. The ultimate pure entity in this world is annihilation; all will die in order to bring about a perfect age where nothing will exist…everything will be the same…perfect unity…for nothing will need to be united."

And with that, the wolf's eyes flashed back to their usual dark green.

The referee stoat looked at him with his mouth wide open. Vulpuz looked back and frowned. "What is it? Ah was allowed tae kill ta foxy, right?"

A watching rat nodded. "Aye, matey. But after ye killed im', ye kind o' went a liddle funny…"

The wolf looked at the rat. "Whadda yew mean by that?"

The referee stoat interrupted. "Your eyes kinda started tae glow red…an' den ya' said something…sounded like a prophecy, it did." After contemplating this for a second, the stoat looked at Vulpuz in wonder. "Are ye' a seer or somethin'?"

"No!" the wolf snapped.

A weasel raised a paw. "Yew said something 'bout Vulpuz-ye' know, that fox god…an' summat 'bout a perfect age an' unity. I dunno, I didn't catch most o' it."

Kenta, a bookish ferret and one of the few in the horde who could actually write, cleared his throat. "I memorized the important parts o' it. Yew said it widout any of your normal accent, mate-you have ta admit, that's weird. Anyway…this is what I remembered." The ferret said before he began to speak. "'I am Vulpuz…the purger of weakness…the Great Destroyer. Those who bow before me in fear shall die'…and I missed some here. Then yew said, 'The ultimate pure entity in this world is annihilation…' then summat about a perfect age, then 'Everything will be the same…perfect unity…for nothing will need to be united.'"

Kenta finished speaking and grinned smugly.

Vulpuz looked at him as though he'd dropped from space. "Ah said no such thing. Are yew having hallucinations, or somethin'? I dunno about dis fox god, ye ken, an' ah certainly said nothin' about unity, an' a perfect age sounds ridiculous."

"Well, you should know about Vulpuz," a scrawny rat called out, "seein' as yew were named after 'im."

The stoat referee smirked. "Vulpuz, not you, da god-" he added quickly to the wolf, "-was always spoken of in my home clan. Don't let it worry yew too much, matey. Probably just a weird coincidence, ye know…as a fox god, e's just a no good dog who everybeast thinks is some 'igh diety."

He would have said something else, but Vulpuz' eyes were starting to glow red again, and he spoke once more in the strange, booming voice. "You have a smart tongue for a worthless vermin, stoat. If I was you, I'd learn to hold it in, lest one of my more loyal followers…take care of you…yes, let's put it that way." The wolf's face grew into a vicious, twisted, slightly evil looking smile. Well, maybe slightly was a bit of an understatement. "I will be watching you, stoat."

The evil red eyes seemed to smile. "And when you slip up like that again, you'll wake up one morning with a blade in between your ribs."

The eyes slowly faded back to green, and the entire army looked at the wolf like he was a freak, and the wolf looked back at them, looking puzzled.

"What?"

**A.N.: Another short chapter, unfortunately. Next one will be long. I can promise that. =D Anyway, I had this whole story-line plot thing planned out. Although it's getting rather confusing with the two Vulpuz-es. And I have the whole next chapter planned out. Let me just say, it'll focus on Vulpuz again-and a couple other beasts as well.**

**Keep R&R-ing, people…even though nobody has reviewed yet. XD**


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